Manchester City will travel to the country’s capital to face-off against Chelsea on Sunday without five first-team players due to positive COVID-19 tests.
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The Premier League giants are scheduled to play Frank Lampard’s Blues in a hotly anticipated domestic match on Sunday afternoon in a game which could have serious title implications.
Chelsea are on an abysmal run of form having won just one of their last five domestic matches during a spell which has included crushing defeats to Arsenal (3-0) and Wolves (2-1).
Elsewhere, Pep Guardiola’s Citizens come into this weekend’s clash currently down in eighth place in the league table and will be desperate to close to gap on rivals Manchester United and Liverpool.
Despite Man City’s worrying league position, the blue half of Manchester do have two games in-hand, partly due to a recent postponement against Everton.
Man City’s clash against the Toffees was called off at the last minute due to a COVID-19 breakout throughout the Citizen’s squad, as per Sky Sports.
There have been circulating rumours that Man City’s recent outbreak of positive COVID-19 tests stemmed from a team party, however, at this stage, these reports are unconfirmed.
Ahead of Sunday’s crucial clash, the extent of Man City’s woes has been confirmed after BBC Sport reported that Guardiola will be forced to navigate his way past Chelsea without the help of five squad members.
It has been confirmed that Kyle Walker and Gabriel Jesus are two of the five members currently unavailable with the other three unnamed.